<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Bell Hotel in Epping, just outside of London, gets no new bookings, yet is full every night. That's because, since 2020, it has been used by the government to help house the thousands of asylum seekers who arrive each year on England's southern coast and become trapped in administrative limbo.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Save the hoteliers, no one is happy with the current system: Not the government and local councils, who have to stump up huge sums to pay the lucrative contracts; not the asylum seekers, who can spend years living in a small room waiting to learn if they can stay in Britain; and, more recently in the case of the Epping hotel, not local residents, some of whom say they feel unsafe with the groups of young men living in town.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>From time to time, these grievances boil over. In Epping, the flashpoint came last month after an asylum seeker from Ethiopia was charged with sexually assaulting a schoolgirl in the local high street. He has been charged with other offences and is awaiting trial. He denies the allegations.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/peregian-beach-suspicious-device-pspa-declared-queensland-police-news-sunshine-coast/e9b982a6-0a54-4de4-a4d9-5f6f9410e737" target="_blank"><strong><span>Police explode dangerous device found on popular Aussie beach</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Many residents were incensed. Some held protests outside the hotel – fuelled by those on the hard-right – which turned violent.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But the protesters were given something to cheer on Tuesday, when the council won a landmark High Court ruling that will block the owners of the Bell Hotel from housing asylum seekers, after the council complained that the hotel was not being used for its intended purpose. The 138 people living there will have to be removed next month.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The court ruling has shunted this three-star hotel into the centre of a political firestorm, which could cause a huge headache for the Labour government. Where these asylum seekers will go next poses the thorniest of problems for Prime Minister Keir Starmer.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/how-british-hotels-became-a-flashpoint-for-a-furious-immigration-debate/e427beb3-abbc-4773-94d6-f92547b18ae4" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But for Nigel Farage, the firebrand leader of the hard-right Reform UK party, the ruling was a cause for celebration.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Farage, once the driving force behind Britain's Brexit movement and now a member of parliament, applauded what he called a "great victory". He called for similar protests outside migrant hotels across the country, to "put pressure on local councils to go to court" to try to block other hotels from housing asylum seekers – demonstrations are expected at locations around Britain this weekend.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>If councils across the UK choose to take similar legal action, that could create a major problem for the government, which has a legal obligation to provide accommodation for asylum seekers while their claims are being processed. In the UK, some 210 hotels are being used to house about 32,000 people. If other councils win rulings like Epping, the government could within months have to find other places to house them while their claims crawl through the system.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>A turning point</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Mohamed Khador said it took him three years to make it from Somalia to the UK. The longest time the 24-year-old spent anywhere was in Austria, where he worked briefly as a dish washer, but mostly he was always on the move. When he arrived in Dunkirk, northern France, he had saved about $US1000 ($1500). That was enough to buy him a space on a derelict dinghy, with some 70 others, hoping soon to see England's white cliffs. The journey across the Channel was "scary, painful, cold," Khador told CNN.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>When he arrived four months ago, he was taken to a processing centre. Since then, he has lived at the Bell Hotel, unable to work legally – asylum seekers were stripped of the right to work in 2002 as part of the British government's attempts to deter illegal immigration.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/possible-tax-system-changes-productivity-roundtable-treasurer-jim-chalmers/bcd1f1b3-bc6e-4d7a-87c9-deeb5c082c97" target="_blank"><strong><span>Tax on $4.1 trillion of Aussie savings could be rolled out soon</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>At first, things were "normal", he said. While the locals would play cricket, he would play soccer with others staying in the hotel. "We'd go out. Nobody cared," he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Then came what he calls "the incident", which seemed to have become a touchstone in the town's collective mind.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In July, Hadush Kebatu, a 38-year-old from Ethiopia, was charged with sexual assault, harassment, and inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity. She was 14.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Eddie and Elaine, a couple who have lived in the area for 15 years and declined to give their last names, said the past few weeks have been a turning point, after years of relative calm.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"This summer is the worst it's been, with the problems," Elaine told CNN. "No one, really, thinks it's a good idea to have 150 men in a place like that, on the corner of a town, right next to the school."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The day after the court ruling, many in the town made their feelings known. Dozens of people drove past the Bell Hotel, honking their horns in seeming celebration. Others called out "Get Starmer gone" and, "About time, get rid of 'em". There were several loud chants of "Niiigel", in support of Farage, one of a select number of British politicians whom the public feel they know on a first-name basis.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>For Khador, "the incident" also changed everything. He said people have thrown beer cans at him while he walks to the local shop; others shout "scum" as they drive by.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/erik-menendez-denied-parole-after-decades-in-prison-for-parents-murder-us/dc19af85-0c19-4398-98aa-59cd75f1df30" target="_blank"><strong><span>Erik Menendez denied bail decades after parents' murder</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"They say you are innocent until proven guilty. It's like the opposite of that now. It's like you are guilty until proven innocent. At the moment, you're just an immigrant. You're guilty."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>'Our streets'</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The road that runs from the town centre to the Bell Hotel has, in the past two weeks, been lined with the white and red of the England St George's Cross flag.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I think it's great," said one passerby. "These are our streets."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But others were quietly troubled by the displays of nationalism, which some feared could have an ugly edge. One man said he did not want to be quoted because, if he expressed support for migrants, he feared he might become a target for the protesters who had on recent nights demonstrated outside the hotel.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It's a small town. People talk. Everyone knows where everyone lives," he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Although Farage has called for "peaceful" demonstrations across the UK, recent protests have not always been peaceful.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Last summer, the UK saw protests devolve into thuggish violence and outright racism when misinformation helped fuel anti-immigration riots across the country. The killing of three girls in Southport, northern England, at a Taylor Swift-themed yoga class last July led to widespread unrest, with dozens arrested. In one instance, protesters set fire to a hotel used to house asylum seekers while people were still inside.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/ultra-violette-sunscreen-pulled-from-shelves-lean-screen-spf-testing-discrepancy/55852597-16f6-463f-a22f-4a7e9fe98c96" target="_blank"><strong><span>Popular sunscreen pulled from shelves</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Far-right activists were accused of using social media platforms to spread disinformation, most notably falsely claiming that the Southport attacker was an immigrant who had arrived in the UK illegally. In reality, the man convicted of the murders was a teenager born in the Welsh capital Cardiff to Rwandan migrants.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Since the Labour party came to power last summer, about 38,000 people have arrived on small boats; down from a peak in 2022, but still more than a third up on the previous year. Many of those have been housed in hotels.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Recent policies, such as a "one-in-one-out" deal with France, cannot solve the central problem: Thousands of people each year are still willing to risk their lives to travel across the Channel.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Frustration with high levels of immigration, coupled with discontent over Britain's sluggish economic growth, has provided fertile ground for nativism.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"We're a small country," said Eddie. "We can only absorb so much before it changes our whole environment. But we, actually, were brought up here – by our parents, after World War II."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Asked where he thinks those staying in the Bell Hotel should be removed to, he said: "We think there should be probably purpose-made camps. They've had years to think this out … They should be building some camps to absorb the influx and deal with them."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Home Office announced on Friday it will appeal the court's ruling, saying the government is committed to closing all asylum hotels by 2029, but that it wants this to be done in a "managed and orderly manner". Earlier, it had warned that the court's decision would "substantially impact" its ability to house asylum seekers in hotels across the UK.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Those impacts are likely to grow larger still, as other councils weigh whether to lodge their own legal challenges. Farage said the 10 councils run by Reform UK will do "everything in their power" to win similar rulings. Even some Labour councils have announced similar plans.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>At the Bell Hotel, all 80 rooms housing 138 people will need to be emptied by the evening of September 12.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>For Khador, the Somali man, this likely means many more months before he can, as he sees it, restart his life.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I just want to prove that I'm not a criminal. Just prove that I can contribute. I'm not a freeloader," he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But whether he's in another hotel or a different type of accommodation altogether makes little difference. "It's going to be the same in every place," he said.</span></div></div>